Steve Weddle's Country Hardball is a compelling novel-in-stories about a small working class town in the South. This unique storytelling technique paints a stark picture about life in Roy Alison's economically depressed hometown and the devastating aftermath of a lifetime of poor choices by him and his fellow townspeople.

Novel-in-stories is a very unique form of storytelling. It is basically a collection of short stories that are loosely linked or somehow interconnected. In the case of Country Hardball, the stories are connected by the town, its inhabitants and a seemingly unrelated series of crimes. In the beginning, it is a little confusing trying to keep track of the various characters and the different relationships, but as each of the stories unfolds, a clear pattern finally begins to emerge. While I enjoyed the overall collection, I was continually frustrated by the abrupt ending of each story and trying to figure out how each one relates to the other stories. My curiosity was piqued by each individual tale and my frustration stemmed from my desire to know more about the characters, how they ended up at that particular moment in time and what motivated their decisions.

At the center of Country Hardball is Roy Alison and his rather infamous past. Never quite able to escape the notoriety of a tragic accident he caused as a teenager, Roy's life is a series of one bad decisions after another which results in prison time. With each release from jail, he vows to do better. But of course, as a convicted felon, career choices are limited for Roy, so with his cousin Cleovis by his side, he winds up falling back into criminal behavior time and again.

Roy is an extremely sympathetic character and it is very easy to see how difficult it is for him to break free of his past. Small towns often have long memories and Roy's is no exception. At every turn, someone is there to bring up the past (both the good and the bad) and you almost have to wonder why he keeps returning-I know I certainly did. Roy's family has deep in roots in town and with his grandmother still living there, I think basically it boiled down to a certain comfort in feeling connected to a place and the people who reside there.

Country Hardball is an eclectic mix of rather heartbreaking vignettes that Steve Weddle manages to bring to a optimistic ending. I can only hope that he plans to revisit the characters in future novels, because I would love to see their stories explored in greater depth. ( )

Roy Alison returns to his hometown, determined to go straight after years of crime and incarceration, but finds it difficult to tow the line in a place urging him to go wrong. Though he takes a stable job with the county, he is soon caught in the tangled web of the town's lawlessness. Told in interconnected stories, Country Hardball examines the roots of a small town's despair and aimlessness.

While a series of crimes pulls Weddle's stories together, the novel's strength is in its characters. From a father piling up credit card debt to give his son a chance at little league stardom to violent kills for money, Country Hardball explores the wide spectrum of life in a small, blue collar town. Weddle pinpoints the struggles we see daily and magnifies them onto hauntingly realistic characters that are nearly impossible to forget, even after the last page is turned.

Dark and heavy, but deeply honest, Country Hardball comes from a place of sharp awareness and shouldn't be missed.

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